VOTING YOUNG: AN ANALYSIS OF HOW STATE STANDARDS FOR HIGH SCHOOL CIVICS IMPACTS YOUTH VOTING RATES

On average, youth voting rates in America have been declining since the 1960s. Scholars find the decline to correlate with the decline in the number and quality of civic classes in American high schools. Through collaborative efforts, the civic education industry has come up with the Ten Proven Practices, which include in-classroom and school-wide practices to ensure an effective civic education. The Ten Proven Practices' goal is to help students graduate with the knowledge, skills, and desire to participate in civic life, including voting. This research paper examines how well six state Department of Education policies implement the Ten Proven Practices to see if including more of the Practices correlates with higher voting rates. While further research is recommended, this study's results suggest better implementation of the Ten Proven Practices may positively affect voting rates

A high protein low glycemic index diet has no adverse effect on blood pressure in pregnant women with overweight or obesity: a secondary data analysis of a randomized clinical trial

ObjectivesThe objective of this analysis was to evaluate the effect of a diet rich in animal protein and low in glycemic index on blood pressure during pregnancy.DesignThis post hoc, secondary data analysis of a randomized controlled trial, evaluated blood pressure in pregnant participants who were randomized either to an ad libitum diet with high protein and low glycemic index, rich in dairy and seafood, or an ad libitum control diet according to national recommendations.SettingThe study occurred in pregnant women in Copenhagen, Denmark.SampleA total of 279 pregnant females with overweight or obesity were enrolled.Methods and outcome measureBlood pressure was measured at 5 timepoints during pregnancy from gestational week 15 through week 36, and blood pressure between groups was compared.ResultsThere were no differences between diet arms in systolic or diastolic blood pressure over time. There were also no differences in most blood-pressure-related pregnancy complications, including the prevalence of premature birth, preeclampsia, or hypertension, but the frequency of total cesarean sections was lower in the active than the control group (16 out of 104 vs. 30 out of 104) (p = 0.02).ConclusionIncreased animal protein intake was not associated with changes in blood pressure in pregnant women with overweight or obesity.Clinical trial registration[ClinicalTrials.gov], identifier [NCT01894139]

High fat, low carbohydrate diet limit fear and aggression in Göttingen minipigs

High fat, low carbohydrate diets have become popular, as short-term studies show that such diets are effective for reducing body weight, and lowering the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. There is growing evidence from both humans and other animals that diet affects behaviour and intake of fat has been linked, positively and negatively, with traits such as exploration, social interaction, anxiety and fear. Animal models with high translational value can help provide relevant and important information in elucidating potential effects of high fat, low carbohydrate diets on human behaviour. Twenty four young, male Göttingen minipigs were fed either a high fat/cholesterol, low carbohydrate diet or a low fat, high carbohydrate/sucrose diet in contrast to a standard low fat, high carbohydrate minipig diet. Spontaneous behaviour was observed through video recordings of home pens and test-related behaviours were recorded during tests involving animal-human contact and reaction towards a novel object. We showed that the minipigs fed a high fat/cholesterol, low carbohydrate diet were less aggressive, showed more non-agonistic social contact and had fewer and less severe skin lesions and were less fearful of a novel object than minipigs fed low fat, high carbohydrate diets. These results found in a porcine model could have important implications for general health and wellbeing of humans and show the potential for using dietary manipulations to reduce aggression in human society

Multimorbidity in bipolar disorder and under-treatment of cardiovascular disease: a cross sectional study

Background: Individuals with serious mental disorders experience poor physical health, especially increased rates of cardiometabolic morbidity and premature morbidity. Recent evidence suggests that individuals with schizophrenia have numerous comorbid physical conditions which may be under-recorded and under-treated but to date very few studies have explored this issue for bipolar disorder. Methods:We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of a dataset of 1,751,841 registered patients within 314 primary-care practices in Scotland, U.K. Bipolar disorder was identified using Read Codes recorded within electronic medical records. Data on 32 common chronic physical conditions were also assessed. Potential prescribing inequalities were evaluated by analyzing prescribing data for coronary heart disease (CHD) and hypertension. Results: Compared to controls, individuals with bipolar disorder were significantly less likely to have no recorded physical conditions (OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.54-0.63) and significantly more likely to have one physical condition (OR 1.27, 95% CI 1.16-1.39), two physical conditions (OR 1.45, 95% CI 1.30-1.62) and three or more physical conditions (OR 1.44, 95% CI 1.30-1.64). People with bipolar disorder also had higher rates of thyroid disorders, chronic kidney disease, chronic pain, chronic obstructive airways disease and diabetes but, surprisingly, lower recorded rates of hypertension and atrial fibrillation. People with bipolar disorder and comorbid CHD or hypertension were significantly more likely to be prescribed no antihypertensive or cholesterol-lowering medications compared to controls, and bipolar individuals with CHD or hypertension were significantly less likely to be on 2 or more antihypertensive agents. Conclusions: Individuals with bipolar disorder are similar to individuals with schizophrenia in having a wide range of comorbid and multiple physical health conditions. They are also less likely than controls to have a primary-care record of cardiovascular conditions such as hypertension and atrial fibrillation. Those with a recorded diagnosis of CHD or hypertension were less likely to be treated with cardiovascular medications and were treated less intensively. This study highlights the high physical healthcare needs of people with bipolar disorder, and provides evidence for a systematic under-recognition and under-treatment of cardiovascular disease in this group

TOWARDS ACCURATE INSTANCE SEGMENTATION IN LARGE-SCALE LIDAR POINT CLOUDS

Panoptic segmentation is the combination of semantic and instance segmentation: assign the points in a 3D point cloud to semantic categories and partition them into distinct object instances. It has many obvious applications for outdoor scene understanding, from city mapping to forest management. Existing methods struggle to segment nearby instances of the same semantic category, like adjacent pieces of street furniture or neighbouring trees, which limits their usability for inventory- or management-type applications that rely on object instances. This study explores the steps of the panoptic segmentation pipeline concerned with clustering points into object instances, with the goal to alleviate that bottleneck. We find that a carefully designed clustering strategy, which leverages multiple types of learned point embeddings, significantly improves instance segmentation. Experiments on the NPM3D urban mobile mapping dataset and the FOR-instance forest dataset demonstrate the effectiveness and versatility of the proposed strategy

Rietveld-based quantitative phase analysis of sugars in confectionery

Sugars are a near-ubiquitous ingredient in food products, yet rising rates of obesity and related illnesses have prompted a drive to reduce their content. The use of amorphous sugars in confectionery may be one way of achieving this by providing a similarly sweet sensation due to increased dissolution rate. However, accurate amorphous and crystalline form characterisation and quantification of complex foodstuffs can be difficult. In this study, a method for the quantification of crystalline and amorphous sugars in chocolate precursors, using powder X ray powder diffraction, is presented. The method was first validated by the use of known compositions of mixtures of amorphous and crystalline sugars, then employed in assessing two chocolate crumb samples. The results show that the method can reliably determine the absolute quantity of amorphous and crystalline components in a confectionery sample, whilst maintaining sample integrity, apart from the addition of an inert internal standard. As such, it is a valuable addition to other techniques currently used